To be perfectly honest, I’m not all that excited at the prospect of another 20-miler at the moment. To add some interest, I’ve decided a different route and a new playlist are in order. On the up side, I was looking at my training calendar, and I think in a lot of ways, these past few weeks were one of the hardest chunks of the schedule. Next week is a cut-back week, and the long runs in my next four-week cycle total 61 miles, as opposed to the 75 from this round. I’m also giving myself a bit of a taper week before the Dirt Dash in Charleston, so that should break up the monotony as well.

I’m still trying to keep my weekly mileage below 35 right now, which historically has been a good number for me to improve without getting injured. On that front, I’m also adding some weekly goals for strength training: